How do you know they are lie detectors unless you tried lying to them?
* You've seen them catch others in a lie
* You've heard stories about the ability 2nd hand, either from people who have been caught themselves or from people who have seen others get caught.
In addition, there are many fuzzier, less reliable types of evidence:
* Somebody has so much knowledge and experience about something that you can safely assume irregularities would stand out to them.
* They just give off that vibe: soul-piercing gaze, etc.
* They tell you.
So logically, the question makes about as much sense as asking how you could know someone was a good cook if you've never tasted their food. And not only that, getting caught in a lie by someone isn't even necessarily good evidence of their lie detection abilities. Maybe you are just a terrible liar. Maybe they got lucky one time.
But they know. And you end up talking about it, which is a good thing.
So... yeah, I tried lying and failed?
Yes, lying is more commonly - the act of omission rather than telling.
>Lying to YC partners is a waste of time. They won't ask for the money back, so tell them everything. All startups are chaotic shitshows. They know. They invented the phrase.
Most (all?) startups have broken things. Mine did and I tried to hide them at first. But I guess YC is at a point that, after thousands of startups, they've seen most of the patterns and just want to help you fix them. They'll help you no matter in what shape your company is.
Also, some startups plainly lie about their metrics, but those rarely get accepted to YC, from my limited experience.
That seems highly verifiable. You should only lie about things that will be hard to find out like how many women you ever slept with.